I have a very quick, yet powerful marketing tip for you today. It seems simplistic, yet it’s something that the majority of small business owners fail to do. And it’s essential for their success.

Decide what you want from your business, in all the key areas, not just financial areas. Then, turn that want into a target, by putting a number on it.

You can’t hit a target that doesn’t exist

Almost every business owner has a numeric target for profits, revenues etc. However, they tend not to have specific number based targets for the areas of their business, which are essential for achieving those financial targets.

For example, there are things you’ll need to do in order to attract 4,000 new customers over the next 12 months, which are irrelevant if you need to attract 40. The number is what gives you your target. And your target will then rule in and rule out, certain strategies. It will also let you accurately measure whether you’re on track or not.

I speak with business owners regularly, who are wasting time and money on advertising, social media, promotions, sponsoring events… which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual goals or needs of their business.

I see this most often with accountants, freelancers, trainers, lawyers, consultants, designers, coaches, etc. They almost always go wide and shallow, rather than narrow and deep.

They try and reach as many people as possible (wide), with social media, advertising, promotions and such (shallow). They’re being vaguely relevant to a wide number of people, rather than directly relevant to a smaller number of targeted prospective clients. And vaguely relevant marketing is 100% ineffective. It totally fails to capture attention and is too weak to motivate anyone to do anything.

Here are just a few areas where you need number-based targets, in order to make the right marketing and business development decisions.

• How will you know when you are attracting enough high quality sales leads? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when you are getting enough word of mouth referrals? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when your business is retaining enough existing clients? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when your profitability is high enough? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when you have enough subscribers? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when you have enough visitors to your website? Put a number on it.
• How will you know when your professional network is large enough? Put a number on it.

Let those numbers, which are specific to what you want from your business, guide you. It will give you clarity like never before. You’ll be able to make better decisions and focus on the right activities, to achieve your main goals.

There’s an old saying that tells us, let your past make you better, not bitter.

I learned the hard way that we, as business owners, need to use a revised version of that saying: let your competitors make you better, not bitter. 

When I started my business it grew very big, very quick and for a few years, I earned a ton of money. 

Until…

I started to get fewer enquiries from new prospects. Then, even fewer new enquiries. Around that same time, I started hearing about a marketing agency that had moved into my area, focusing, like me, on small business owners. I started to resent the new agency. I assumed they were telling prospects anything, just to get the work in and that they’d soon be found out.

So, I ignored them.

Until it became impossible to ignore them.

It turns out they were good. Very good.

The agency was a partnership of 2 super smart professionals. They were also hard working and agile. There was clearly no point allowing my ego to resent their success and blame them for my situation.

So, I stopped being bitter. Then, focused everything on getting better.

Here’s the key lesson I hope you find useful, from my mistake.

If you have a competitor or a number of competitors ahead of you, there’s always a reason. The challenge is that it’s hard to admit to ourselves that a competitor is stronger than us in 1 or more areas. 

When we look at our high-performing competitors with non-ego clarity, here’s what we’ll typically find.

• They market their services better than we do.
• They offer an outstanding service.
• They offer a valuable variation of a service that’s only available from them.
• They’ve found a cost-effective way to deliver their service, and pass some of that onto their customers or clients. 
• And some do all of the above, plus more.

As I discovered, it can be painful to admit that we need to up our game. That we need to improve. That the competition, who some see as their enemy, is doing something better then we are. That we are the cause, and the cure, of our situation. 

But when we do… and truly believe it’s down to us… we’re 90% of the way to what can be our greatest success ever.

Why?

Because we’ll accept we need to make improvements. And when we focus on making improvements, our actions follow. We’ll do the work or get the help we need.

And THAT’S what’s needed for us to finally enjoy the results we’ve always wanted.

One of the quickest ways to improve your results, is to spot and fix the tiny things that can make a big difference to your business.

Here are some ideas to quickly get you started.

Sham spam

In 2024, I almost lost two, high-quality enquiries from people who became new clients. It was down to what I call sham spam.

Here’s what it is and how to avoid it.

Yes, I know you check your spam email folder. I’m specifically referring to the anti-spam folder on your website, designed to filter spammy messages from reaching you. Genuine business contact form enquiries are sometimes wrongly filtered as spam and you never see them. I learned this one the hard way! It doesn’t happen often, but often enough to justify checking occasionally.

Why not check your spam folder after you’ve finished reading this? It takes very little time.

Customer connections

Regularly make time to connect with at least one of your clients. This incudes former clients. Not to sell them something. Simply to ask how they’re doing and catch up with them. Business relationships become stronger, when they’re based on more than just selling.

Ongoing communication with your clients also helps you to better understand their challenges, their needs and their wants. This understanding makes it easier and less risky, for you to successfully create new services or products.

Pathway planning

If you don’t know where you’re going, every path will take you there. That’s unproductive. It scatters your focus. It leads to dead ends. It’s also why I recommend you plan your days, your weeks and your months in advance.

After all, how can you know if things are going according to plan, if you don’t have a plan?

Flakey forms

This idea takes no time and might stop you from losing important sales enquiries. Go to your website and make sure your contact forms and subscriber forms are working. Often, a form will look perfect when it’s not functioning correctly. So, test your forms by filling-in the required information and make sure everything is okay. It only takes a few minutes, but it could help you avoid missing-out on valuable leads or new subscribers. This is especially the case, whenever you update the software on your website or have any work done on it. 

I hope you found these ideas useful. If you did, remember to share them with your friends.